Utricularia livida 'Mexico'

Origin

A Mexican-form, large-leaved selection of U. livida. Distinct from the more common African forms in trade. The clone proved very hard to acquire — Mike spent years chasing it through private growers, doing "shoulder taps" without success, before one grower finally agreed to sell. The first plant arrived dead-on-arrival from Arizona summer shipping; the seller waited a few weeks to confirm and then sent a replacement.

A childhood backstory ties to the Powell family: Mike was given an identical-looking U. livida by Danny Powell (Chuck Powell's son) in the early 1990s while visiting their house to buy carnivorous plants ("that's how it was done in the 90s — no internet sales!"). Mike kept that plant alive ~10 years before losing it during college, and it took roughly 15 years before he tracked down what looks like the exact same clone.

A second wide-flowered clone of livida 'Mexico' was acquired from forum member hcarlton — also documented in this thread.

Cold tolerance / Winter behavior

Outdoor-hardy in Northern California next to a heat-radiating wall. Survives below-freezing pot conditions but doesn't enjoy them. Mid- winter flowers persist for months because cold slows their development — blooms initiated in late October were still open at 2025-12-19. The hcarlton wide-flowered clone showed cold-stress red leaves but kept flowering when other livida forms were fully dormant.